Microsoft has just responded to Google's move regarding Exchange ActiveSync. Sadly, instead of addressing the very real problems consumers are about to face, Microsoft starts talking about switching to Outlook.com.

With that said, I also think its important to highlight the fact that Outlook.com doesn't sacrifice user experience over politics. It is unbelievable that Google has given their consumers such a raw deal.

Huh? does outlook.com implement POP or IMAP yet? It didn't as of a couple of months ago. That seems like a pretty hefty "sacrifice" for a lot of users and their experience.

Microsoft explicitly discourages the use of POP/SMTP on their outlook.com service, and they don't guarantee their pop server will be there in the future. The only thing that Microsoft has said about IMAP support is that they may or may not support it at some point in the future or ever. And then there is the matter of CalDav, etc. So yeah, Microsoft plays politics just like everybody else.